Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Origin \Or"i*gin\, n. [F. origine, L. origo, -iginis, fr. oriri
   to rise, become visible; akin to Gr. 'orny`nai to stir up,
   rouse, Skr. [.r], and perh. to E. run.]
   1. The first existence or beginning of anything; the birth.

            This mixed system of opinion and sentiment had its
            origin in the ancient chivalry.       --Burke.

   2. That from which anything primarily proceeds; the fountain;
      the spring; the cause; the occasion.

   3. (Anat.) The point of attachment or end of a muscle which
      is fixed during contraction; -- in contradistinction to
      {insertion}.

   {Origin of co["o]rdinate axes} (Math.), the point where the
      axes intersect. See Note under {Ordinate}.

   Syn: Commencement; rise; source; spring; fountain;
        derivation; cause; root; foundation.

   Usage: {Origin}, {Source}. Origin denotes the rise or
          commencement of a thing; source presents itself under
          the image of a fountain flowing forth in a continuous
          stream of influences. The origin of moral evil has
          been much disputed, but no one can doubt that it is
          the source of most of the calamities of our race.

                I think he would have set out just as he did,
                with the origin of ideas -- the proper starting
                point of a grammarian, who is to treat of their
                signs.                            --Tooke.

                Famous Greece, That source of art and cultivated
                thought Which they to Rome, and Romans hither,
                brought.                          --Waller.

Source : WordNet®

origin
     n 1: the place where something begins, where it springs into
          being; "the Italian beginning of the Renaissance";
          "Jupiter was the origin of the radiation"; "Pittsburgh
          is the source of the Ohio River"; "communism's Russian
          root" [syn: {beginning}, {root}, {rootage}, {source}]
     2: properties attributable to your ancestry; "he comes from
        good origins" [syn: {descent}, {extraction}]
     3: an event that is a beginning; a first part or stage of
        subsequent events [syn: {origination}, {inception}]
     4: the point of intersection of coordinate axes; where the
        values of the coordinates are all zero
     5: the descendants of one individual; "his entire lineage has
        been warriors" [syn: {lineage}, {line}, {line of descent},
         {descent}, {bloodline}, {blood line}, {blood}, {pedigree},
         {ancestry}, {parentage}, {stemma}, {stock}]